Wednesday, August 15, 2007

One of world's largest oil rig builders to build industrial park

SembCorp joint venture to build industrial park in Vietnam

INGAPORE: SembCorp Industries' planned industrial park in the Vietnamese city of Bac Ninh, outside the capital, Hanoi, has attracted $183.5 million of investments from 10 companies.

Work on the industrial park will begin in January next year, SembCorp, based in Singapore, said Monday. SembCorp's Vietnamese joint venture, which will be building the 700-hectare, or 1,729-acre, park, is investing $103.7 million, it said.

SembCorp, owner of one of the world's largest offshore oil-rig builders, is expanding in countries like China and Vietnam to benefit from their economic growth. Vietnam may expand as much as 8.3 percent this year, outpacing the impressive 5.6 percent expansion in Southeast Asian economies, the Asian Development Bank said this month.

The venture "has established three industrial park and township projects in Vietnam totaling 1,545 hectares," Low Sin Leng, co-chairman of the joint venture, said in the statement. The first two parks have received investments of about $2 billion, Low said.

Singapore is one of the biggest foreign investors in Vietnam, with $9.6 billion of investments, Trade Minister Lim Hng Kiang of Singapore said in a speech to Vietnamese and Singaporean businessmen in Singapore on Monday.

SembCorp said the venture could also build a 1,200-hectare township and industrial park in the northern city of Hai Phong, the third-largest in Vietnam. SembCorp signed an agreement Monday with the government of Hai Phong to study the possibility of building the park in the city, the company said.